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The video purporting to show US journalist Steven Sotloff being executed is authentic, the White House said on Wednesday.

“The US Intelligence Community has analysed the recently released video showing US citizen Steven Sotloff and has reached the judgment that it is authentic,” said National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden.

The video showing the beheading of the journalist was released by the Islamic State group on Tuesday, which called it retribution for continued US airstrikes in Iraq.

Sotloff, 31, who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, had last been seen in Syria in August 2013 until he appeared in a video released last month that showed the beheading of fellow American journalist James Foley.

At the end of the video, he threatened to kill a third captive, a Briton, David Cathorne Haines.

Sotloff’s mother had pleaded for his release last week in a video directed at the Islamic State group.

Addressing the leader of the Islamic State group by name, Shirley Sotloff said in a video that her son was “an innocent journalist” who shouldn’t pay for US government actions in the Middle East over which he has no control.